Society of Dilettanti.

Estimate

4,000 - 6,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Ionian Antiquities, published, with permission of the Society of Dilettanti, by R. Chandler... N. Revett, W. Pars. London: T. Spilsbury and W. Haskell, 1769 [but c.1784] - W. Bulmer & Co. for George Nicol, 1797

first edition, 2 volumes, folio (535 x 353mm.), 19 engraved illustrations and vignettes (10 + 9) and 93 plates (34 + 59), nineteenth-century red morocco gilt by J. Mackenzie "bookbinder to the king", gilt edges, a few plates slightly spotted, lacking the 4 separately numbered plates in vol.2 (see footnote)

Provenance

[Lord] Egremont, bookplate

Literature

Blackmer 1566; BAL RIBA 3123 & 3125; Contominas 678 and cf. 679

Catalogue Note

a copy in a fine binding. The Society of Dilettanti sponsored an Ionian mission in 1764-66 and these two volumes are the fruit of that undertaking. A further mission in 1812-13 provided material for another volume (in 1840) and more was to follow. Richard Chandler, who was head of the first mission, gave an account of the expedition in his Travels (see lots 28 and 29).

The first volume in this copy is the second issue of the first edition, published c.1784, distinguished by an additional chapter of text and 6 extra plates. The second volume does not have the 4 extra plates (numbered 1-4) found in the Blackmer copy and listed by BAL RIBA.